London (AFP)

Back in London after finding an agreement on Brexit with the 27, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tackle Friday the difficult task of convincing members of the British Parliament to adopt.

The House of Commons is scheduled to meet on Saturday, for the first time since the 1982 Falklands War, for an exceptional session.

But Boris Johnson, who came to power at the end of July, lost his majority in Westminster and now has only 288 elected, where he will need 320 votes.

If he failed to get a favorable vote in Parliament, Boris Johnson would be forced to ask Brussels a new three-month postponement of Brexit, under a law passed in early September by deputies, including 21 rebels on his own.

In Brussels on Thursday alongside European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the British Prime Minister said he was "very confident".

"I am very hopeful that when MPs from all parties (the) will consider, they will see the benefits of supporting him," said the British Prime Minister, who has repeatedly said he wants to the Brexit - already postponed twice - to October 31, whatever happens.

The agreement just published, the small party in Northern Ireland DUP, ally conservatives rejected it. The 10-member Unionist party said it was "unable to support these proposals in Parliament" on the issues of customs regulations and the consent of the North Irish executive to the Brexit project.

Subsequently, Junker warned that the situation would become "extremely complicated" if the British Parliament rejects Saturday the agreement reached for the divorce between the United Kingdom and the EU.

"If this is the case, we will find ourselves in an extremely complicated situation," he told reporters after the first day of the EU summit in Brussels.

The leader of the Labor Party, the main opposition party in the United Kingdom with 244 deputies, called on MEPs to "reject" the agreement between London and the European Union. According to Jeremy Corbyn, "the best way to solve Brexit is to give people the last word" in a second referendum, more than three years after 52% of the British voted to leave the European Union.

Favorable to the maintenance in the EU, the Scottish separatists of the SNP (35 deputies) and the Liberal-Democrats (19) also opposed a non-receipt.

- "In the United Kingdom camp" -

These statements herald a difficult battle for Boris Johnson in Parliament, where his predecessor Theresa May failed three times to pass the deal she had negotiated with Brussels. Thursday, Boris Johnson has multiplied the phone calls to deputies, according to Downing Street, and should continue his business of persuasion Friday.

"It will be necessary that one day in this assembly (?) One takes its responsibilities and that which was decided by a referendum, and supported by the various governments with which we negotiated, is put into action", estimated the chief negotiator of the European Union Michel Barnier. For the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, "the ball is in the camp of the United Kingdom".

The compromise found on Thursday removes the most controversial provision of the version of the deal that Theresa May, who resigned this summer, the "backstop". This safeguard clause provided for the maintenance of the United Kingdom in a single customs territory with the European Union to avoid the return of a physical border on the island of Ireland, in order to preserve peace after decades of violence.

The new compromise sets out special customs rules for goods arriving in Northern Ireland, which remains in the UK customs territory, depending on whether they are destined to remain there or to enter the European single market.

It also provides for a "consent" mechanism by the Northern Ireland authorities to continue the application of certain EU rules in the British province, after a period of four years following the implementation of the agreement.

More generally, the text sets out the conditions for divorce between the United Kingdom and the EU, in particular as regards citizens' rights and compliance with financial commitments. It also introduces a transition period until December 2020.

© 2019 AFP